Historic Exchange District

The Exchange District contains a wide range of architecturally significant resources that speak to the city’s key economic role in the west.

On September 27, 1997, the Federal Minister of Canadian Heritage (The Honourable Sheila Copps) declared the Exchange District a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Exchange District contains a range of architecturally significant resources that speak to the city’s key economic role in the west.

The collective character of these built resources is distinctive and relatively intact. The importance of the area can also be expanded to include the city’s role with respect to grain trade, civic development and labour.

The Exchange District does a great job of illustrating the city’s key role as a centre of grain and wholesale trade, finance and manufacturing in two historically important periods in western development.

Between 1880 and 1900, Winnipeg became the gateway to Canada’s West; and between 1900 and 1913, the city’s growth made it the region’s metropolis.

The Exchange District BIZ offers guided walking tours in the summer which tell the stories of Winnipeg’s early boom years and their resulting legacy.